U.S. Auto Makers Miss the Super Bowl

It’s nearly Super Bowl time again which means everyone is laying in supplies for chicken wings, various dips for various chips, and mapping out the best viewing position in their living rooms. Yes, Americans across the country wait all year for this. Sure, the football is great and everyone wants their team to win, but admit it, we are also eager to see the commercials. Advertisers routinely save their best commercials to be unveiled during the Super Bowl. Personally, I prefer college football, so I wait for the half hour special of nothing but the best commercials after the game.

There will be a noticeable lack of automobile commercials in this year’s lineup however. Lincoln, Jaguar, Honda, and Acura have not prepared any commercials for the big game. Neither has General Motors, but at least they will have a showing. They are providing a new Colorado mid-sized pick up truck to the Most Valuable Player.

GM had no commercials in 2013 either. The global chief marketing officer at the time, Joel Ewanick, said he couldn’t justify the expense. Well, those days were hard on us all. Last year GM bought ad time for two 30-second ads but they have decided to opt out again this year.

In fact, 2014 saw a huge percentage of commercial time in the hands of auto makers. Eleven of them accounted for 25% of the total time devoted to ads. According to Seth Winter, executive vice president for sales and marketing for the NBC Sports Group and NBC Universal News Group, almost 95% of their ad time has been sold to date with very little of it going to auto makers.

Ford is promoting the 2015 F-150, but has chosen the College Football Playoff games over the Super Bowl. However, there will be some automakers advertising during the Super Bowl: BMW will appear for the first time in four years to promote the electric i3; Kia’s sixth consecutive appearance will feature the Sorento crossover; Nissan will return for the first time since 1997; Toyota’s third consecutive appearance will push the 2015 Camry; and Lexus will spotlight the NX in its second consecutive offering.